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Monday, 29 June 2015

I have just been on a very enjoyable lampshade making course with Marna Lunt at Preston Park Museum. You can check out the fabulous inspiration Marna provides on her website - Little A Designs. All materials for the course were provided in one of Marna's black totes emblazoned with a very topical quote from Matisse together with a lovely notebook in which to record any hot tips.

Hot tips in here!

There was a lot of fabric to choose from. Here's my stash:

First choose your fabrics

After drawing round our lampshade templates and sketching out our designs it was time to cut out, stick & stitch the fabric in place ...

Draw round your template and add your design

Stitch in place and decorate

Using embroidery thread to add detail was the next step. Then it was time to put it all together which was a bit fiddly ...

And finally - put it all together

... which is altogether just a bit fiddly but worth the effort

But I got to go home with a fab lampshade - now I just need to find a lamp nice enough to go with it. Thanks, Marna!

If you want to see the fab makes of all the other lovely course goers hop over to Marna's facebook page for a look.

I didn't have time to explore Preston Park Museum and Grounds so I'll just have to go back another time but I can tell you the adventure playground looked ace!

and everyone worked very hard because they didn't have long to produce their own fab notebooks ...

Notebooks made

It was a very pleasant afternoon - thank you everyone for coming along! (Apologies for the notebooks not pictured - camera malfunction!)There are more workshops on Saturday & Sunday including drop in bag making sessions for Young Embroiderers and a whole array of fantastic work on show, demonstrations and items for sale. It's definitely worth a visit.

Friday, 12 June 2015

It was a lovely sunny day for the installation of Poppies in the Park in Rowntree Park, York. A lot of the hard work had already been done creating the big, giant and gigantic poppies so the morning was just spent turning the finger knitting into text.

Base camp established

Text in progress

Reinforcements arrived in the afternoon and we got the poppies up ...

Deborah & Andrew hard at work

Making progress

And then finally it was all up ...

Me and the installation

View across the water

Thanks to everyone who took part - it looks great and wouldn't have been possible without you! Special thanks go to Jose for her 300 poppies and to Helen, Kate & Lily who came to my rescue and attached loads of poppies earlier this week. Thanks to Deborah too, who has worked with me on this project and helped make it possible.Poppies in the Park has been sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park, Boyes & Duttons for Buttons.

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Since our last workshop we've been sorting out poppies. And including all big & small poppies - it's official - there's a thousand. (Loud fanfare please.) How fantastic is that - and rather more than expected! We've had to make our poppy twice as gigantic and had to enlist extra help (thanks so much Helen, Kate & Lily for attaching hundreds of poppies!)

So here's just a sneaky peek at what to expect ...Gigantic poppies - above and below - knitted, stitched & crocheted by the local community

Poppies in the Park has been sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park, Boyes & Duttons for Buttons and wouldn't have been possible without all the fabulous poppy making plus arm and finger knitting by the local community at workshops and at home. Poppy makers of York - you're the best!

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

This was our final Poppies in the Park workshop - we had a mix of new people and regular supporters which was great. There was both knitting and stitching going on, not to mention a group of serious finger knitters and some who were trying it out for the first time. An impressive 10 metres of finger knitting was created (and some more was handed out as homework - thank you in advance to Helen H. and Sam for that!) We were very busy and apart from those who stayed for the workshop we had a number of poppy deliveries from other people & groups.

Finger knitting and a selection of poppies made at the workshop (Penny & Ann - your poppies turned out fine as you can see!)

Angela arrived in time to pick up some big knitting to finish off (more homework - I can't wait to see how it turns out!) So apart from saying thank you to everyone who came and knitted, stitched or finger knitted, we'd like to say thank you to Sew Chatty and friends, St Leonard's Hospice Knitting Group from Heworth, Kath Blackett, Easingwold Knit & Natter (& Helen B. and Sam for their second large poppy delivery!), Janet Clark, Vanessa Bradbury, the Good Humoured Ladies Club who meet at Food from the Farm in Colton, Kate Buckley and Heather's Felting Group - all of whom sent us loads of poppies. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.

In case you're wondering just how many poppies we have - we've got about 950 - so there's been a lot of serious knitting and stitching going on. Thanks everyone - it's going to be great!

A big thank you too, to Rowntree Park Reading Cafe for having us - fab coffee & cakes, folks!

Monday, 1 June 2015

Marie, Jose, Edna & Doreen - Fairfax Court Yarnstormers (Thanks too, to Maureen who has also been knitting poppies but couldn't join us for the picture)

Today I went along to join the Fairfax Court Yarnstormers to collect all their hard work. They have been knitting for the Poppies in the Park project and have been very prolific. I collected 378 poppies (217 white poppies + 161 red poppies). How impressive is that! (Jose confided that she had knitted 300 which is quite a feat.)

White poppies

Red Poppies

Thank you so much ladies! They'll be a fantastic addition to our display.

Do come along to our final workshop which is on Tuesday 2 June from 2-4pm at Rowntree Park Cafe, York.

The Poppies in the Park installation goes up in Rowntree Park on Thursday 11 June
(by the tennis courts, near the cafe) and will be on display until
after the Rowntree Park Birthday Party on Sunday 12 July 2015.

About Me

I create contemporary jewellery and textiles, making use of constructed fabric, buttons and other stuff too. And when I’m not doing that I’m probably yarnstorming, planning the next yarnstorming project or blogging about what I’ve seen, what I’m doing or what I’ve learnt.